On Monday, Ted Cruz announced the formation of a “religious liberty” advisory council intended to help the Texas senator sound the dog whistle of “religious freedom” and advocate for discrimination against LGBT Americans.

Cruz is following in the footsteps of Republican rival Marco Rubio who last month created a “Marriage & Family Advisory Board.” The expressed purpose of that board is to overturn the Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling. Honestly, it’s surprising it took Cruz this long to follow up with his own anti-gay advisory council given his propensity for fomenting bigotry.

“Religious liberty is the first freedom guaranteed to Americans under the Constitution, and ensuring the protection of that right has been a priority my entire adult life,” Cruz said. “Increasingly, renegade government officials seek to coerce people of faith either to act in a manner that violates their faith or forfeit their career. When I am elected president, that will change. It is time for our liberties to be respected in Washington. The right to religious liberty built America, and denying that right is both un-American and morally wrong.” […]

Cruz’s council is basically a cadre of anti-LGBT advocates. Among is Bishop Harry Jackson, senior of the Maryland-based Hope Christian Church and leading opponent of the same-sex marriage law in D.C. Another member is Tony Perkins, president of the anti-LGBT Family Research Council, who had earlier endorsed Cruz and said in a statement he’s “honored” to join the candidate’s “religious liberty” advisory council.

As The Blade notes, that there is some overlap between Cruz and Rubio’s respective anti-equality advisory groups: “Ryan Anderson, a senior research fellow Heritage Foundation known for writing tracts in opposition to same-sex marriage in favor of anti-LGBT discrimination, is a member of both Rubio and Cruz’s groups.”

Also included on Cruz’s list? Your favorite anti-gay bros, the Benham Brothers.

Check out the full list of Cruz’s anti-gay cabal, below:

Chair – Tony Perkins President, Family Research Council

Ryan Anderson, Ph.D.

William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation

Dr. Tony Beam Vice President for Student Services and Christian Worldview, North Greenville University

Latest Posts

APPLE. Tim Cook tells employees the company is donating $2 million to fight hate groups: “Cook sent a memo to employees Wednesday pledging the donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. The Montgomery, Alabama… Read

A 25-year-old man has been jailed for knowingly passing on the HIV virus to two former lovers. Based in Nottingham, England, Antonio Reyes-Minana had unprotected sex with two other men separately in 2008 and 2012. The men later discovered their HIV s… Read

Michigan police are investigating a fire at the home of a prominent LGBT activist as a possible hate crime. Police had already confirmed that the fire at the Jackson City home of Nikki Joly and Chris Moore was being investigated as arson. Joly is dir… Read

On Twitter Thursday morning, Donald Trump lamented the removal of racist Confederate statues around the country: “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments… Read

Following the recent publication of new photos of Vladimir Putin putting on an annual macho shirtless show in the Russian wilderness, Pavel Durov, the founder of the social networking sites VKontakte and Telegram, set up a challenge for his followers… Read

Rapper Tyler the Creator revealed that he had a boyfriend in his teens during an interview on Know Wave’s Koopz Tunes radio podcast. Said Tyler after the host suggests that he’s more open-minded than he’s been in the past: “I had a… Read

President Trump’s unimaginable press conference Tuesday, where he again claimed that white supremacist protesters and counter-protesters were to blame for tensions in Virginia, continued to dominate the news Wednesday. On NBC’s Late Night Wednesday,… Read

Recently at a dinner party I attended there was a civilized debate about the famous monuments around the country glorifying the Confederacy and its leaders. A few people expressed concerned that moving monuments is rewriting history and a case of pol… Read

If you haven’t seen VICE’s documentary on the Charlottesville white supremacist rally, it’s really worth 20 minutes of your time. Among its subjects is Unite the Right’s Christopher Cantwell, the neo-Nazi seen crying in a vide… Read